10
Never
Christmases They've Forgotten
---as told by 3 Chelsea Pensioners
JAMES ELLAWAY, aged 3D, has to think back a long way because he was only 27 when he spent it in the Nubean Desert. Sixty-two years is a long time and details are Inclined to slip into the oblivion of [an old man's mind. But he never forget completely, because, it was the dullest Christmas he ever spent.
the
con
Duy,
round the railhead from Durban
heaven. but to the troops it was They went under canvas and bullt themselves a canteen of timber., It wan 200 feet long, and 50 men went down to the railhead to fetch the beer. They hadn't been pald two years and the colonel ordered a daily pay parade,
for
"We could have an much, ns, wo was
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1946.
JUST A FEW REMINDERS
When one thinks of the hundreds of little things which the average housewife has to remember, We can readily forgive and understand if she forges occasionally,
However, every good housewife hates forgetting things, for. it usually happens that she forgets few inis about the somoching which upsets things Thor badly-as well as herself Here are a things you may forget if you are not very entotul.
Be sure you have laid up a good stock of inned milk, condensed or evaporated. If you can get tinned or bottled cream, it's useful.
Do not ECL too much bread in. People eat less bread at Christmas time than any other time to the year. Average your usual supply, and allow about two loaves extra, and you will find you will not be bravely trying to cat stala brend for the next fortnight,
Make certain that your stove or cooker is in perfect order. If it is not, have matters put right as soon as possible.
Get all the cooling done on Christmas Eve, to leave the oven free for the turkey. Make suro that you have a pan big enough for the turkey.
Test all your electrical fittings to see that they are in order. Get out your prettiest lampshades and see that there are one or two spare bulbs in the house in cast of accidents over the holidays— especially it ping pong figures on your programme,
COMÉDIENNENMUCH) AnimaniacŢA DE Z VESELJEMENCOBNOTRE PAINTPANELINGAKUI JUUNILLERARAUTZARAKOMİK
Nowhere to go.
wanted-oven £5.--but there nothing to spend it on except beer," sald Fred. Only one day did they to without pay. That was Christmass week and next are for most of us the best time of the year. Day when everyone except the cooks
Bright hearts, gay parties, laughter, pnd zentries had a rest.
good food and drink, robin redbreast Christmas cards and "just what we wanted" presents send our spirits right up in the nir.
dinner, At dinner--and what a for there was both beef and mutton -the ofleera came to see them nd the sergeants waited on then. The colonel arrived and they drank his health,
He was in the Royal Berkshires Camel volunteered for but Transport Corps, and it was with a company of the Corps-part of Sir force that he Herbert Stewart's found himself, as corporai of the tho neross rearguard, trudging barren desert on Christmas 1884.
Away aliend was Abuklen, and ant as it Abuklen meant water,
battle. And turned out, a bloody
Khartoum, beyond Abuklea
"We could afford to for we had a whero a man with grey hair which Hot whiter as the days passed was barrel of beer to every table," said holding out against the siege. But Fred. "That beer lasted us days. Gordon was assassinated before the have never seen so much in all my relief force got to him. James just fe. And good beer you got remembers the lack of water-fancy those days, too!" Christmas without a drink-and the
wag
I
in
in
After dinner they all rested taste of sand in the bully which way
steady their tents and had the most peace- fare, the their Christmas trek of the camels, and the sweat,fol time they had hud for months It rolled from under the helmet, No, they did not even have to do Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown was just FT. on Boxing Day, or turn out to a one-eyed place a dozen
Now let us spend a few minuten re- the best time for flecting, that the majority lt, by contrast, the are worst time for others. There' hundreds of lonely people of all ages and, of all conditions whose loneliness will be harder to bear this week and to the end of the year because they ure out of everything. ·
Once they may have been members of a bit happy family now scattered. Husband or wife may have died, and in places where they are out of reach, the children have homes of their own
who in earlier, brighter days, always "kept themselves to themselves" be cause they disapproved of gossip. Now they long for a friend.
M
Caroline's Christmas
THE hours
passing.
passed,
hogs
(Continued from Page 3).
and kept and the soft cooing of the
seemed to usher in the mining, öf. Christmas with Its merrage of pênce and goodwill.
It was 11.30. Then auddenly Anna started front hér place.
"Henry!" she erled as the door entered. He opened and a man advanced ladly to meet her, and in nmoment mother und son folded in a close embrace, It was
the Henry.
man from Sing-Sing Truc to his word, he had slipped Rwny unostentatiously at the height of the festivities.
were
"Alas, Henry," said the mother after the warmth of the first greet ings had passed, "you come at an unlucky hour." They told him of the mortgage on the farm and the ruin of his home.
THE club fell from Henry's hand,
and rattled on the floor. The sleeper weke and wat. up. #Father! Mother!" he cried. "My son, my son," gobbed the
it Cuessed
Was you. father, "we had We had come to wake you."
"Yes, it is I,"
I," said William, smiling lifa
"and I have brought the million
dollars. Here it is," and with that he unstrapped the belt from his waist and laid a million dollars on the
Thank
Heaven!" Cried Anna, "our troubles are at an end. This
to
"Yes," said Anna, "not even a money will help clear the mortgage by HILDA COE bed to offer you, and she spoite of and the greed of Pinchem and Co.
'the
the stranger who had arrived; of cannot harm u now."
"The farm was mortgaged!" sald stricken women and the child, william, aghast. and the rich man in the sealskin coat who had naked. for a night's shelter.
What troubles me in how can I say TT is worth a superhuman effort 10:
keep out of the circle or, if we anything to comfort the very poor think we're in it, to heave ourselves who are lonely. Frankly, I don't Henry listened intently while they out, even at the risk of looking a bit i know. Anything I think of saying told him of the man, and a sudden ungainly while we are doing it. seems to be presumptuous, I can re-fight of intelligence flashed into his you lonely? It would be in-mind them, though they probably devety Heaven, father, I have it!" he
not need a reminder, that when Christ-child came into the world cried. Then, dropping his voice, he there wns
no room for Him in the solid. "Speak low, father. This man he had a sealskin coat and inn, and that His first companions upstairs, h were the lowing oxen in their stalls.silk This recollection of His nearness to
maid the father.
human to say, "Don't give way to self-pity." Do give way, if you want to, for a little while, but don't let this comforting bit of self-indulgence Act out of bounds. Presently the sooner the better-you must face your lonely self, and ask what you are
oing to do about II.
them in their poverty may help to comfort them on a lonely day. It will not give them a share in tangible Christmas joys.
"ДУН
to
whose
sald
the former, "mortṇaged Inen who have no conacience, greedy handi has nearly brought us to the grave. See how she has aged, my, boy.
boy.and he pointed to Anna. "Father," al
sold. Willlam,- in deep
みな
I
tones of contrition 1.om Finchem Co. Heaven help me! I' and
sce at what expense of now. suffering my fortune" was inde. will
million restore it all, these "Yes," "Father," said Henry, "I saw a dollars, to those I have wronged.
"No." said his mother softly. "You man sitting in a neigh in the cedar "No wamp. He had money in his hand, repent, dear son, will true Christian and he counted it and chuckled-repentance. That a enough. You
upon 03 trust, five dollar gold pleces-in all, may keep the money. We wil look
time we and every. The father and son looked at one 1,125,465 dollars and a quarter."
of it on another.
see your idea," said Enderby
one like that, ask the those who keep Christmas surrounded sternly, choke him," said Henry.
It
it
a sacred trust,
assrives S
thine
dollar of
"Yes," said the farmer coltly, "Your mother is right, the money, is
hauses see the sergeants play the officers some of the lonely ones will be those neighbour if they can make sugges- | and daughters, brothers and sisters' " club him," said the farmer, a trust, and we will restock the fam
By Peter
cheeks the scorched
and down
his red unic. His conked Into shirt under his heavy pack was one sodden ins and the heat quivered above the barren desert as far as the eye could, sec.
in
There should have been snow instead of sand and a crisp frost place of this sultry air. He telling Lieutenant remembered
died nt Godfrey Godfrey Abuklea.
-so.
WDS
"You, that
my worst Christmas" cald James.
"I was glad when later Lord Wolseley ordered us back home."
Lawrence
at football. The colonel said every- une, was to rest, and rest they did. When the SWD's left to enship at Durban for Gibraltar, Fred stayed He joined Sir Garnet behind, Wolseley's staff as a fatigue man and did not return to the depot at Brecon until 1885. But that Christ. mas lingers on in his mind.
C
Ho
1860.
Can you find some one lonelier or poorer than you to share your Christ-
So I would also remind those who mas? I put this question because loneliness and poverty, though they are not lonely that the Chris-child. and | often go hand in hand, don't always. by His coming, consecrated
If your answer is that you do not blessed family life, and it is up to
parish priest or your
next-doar know any
by the love of wife or husband, sons almost certainly and friends, to spread something of tions. You wil
of somebody too deeply their joy and happiness to the lonely hear entangled in the vicious circle to poor. It is easy to be generous when pull themselves out without help, to we are happy, and grand to set a I write on this subject with sym-whom you can offer a friendly hand. snowball of happiness rolling.
For the unhappy whether you are lonely or not-there is one practical · way of finding happiness. Forget pathy because when my father died and I gave up any home-I was
yourself completely and do good to twenty-four- spent four desperately lonely years.
others for a day. Christmas time offers plenty of scope.
ONE or two friends used to invite me to visit them, and I remember to well looking at the clock and wondering how much longer I could stay, while I am pretty certain they were looking at it and wondering when I was going. We get like that when we are lonely.
LONELINESS
#
•
•
is different from solitude, which is n temporary and wholly satisfying stale,
The difference between solitude and loneliness is that in loneliness there is no one near at hand to love.
no one to give us love: We may not be able to nike anybody love us, but can we not find some one to whom we can give love?
The great point is not be too par- ticular. It is no use waiting until you have persuaded the person you wish to be your friend to want your friend-, ship. That person may have more friends than he (or she) knows what to do with, and will therefore be out of sympathy with your devotion.
But the Secret Fund life. BUT then Sergeant Jimny Delpiano was born in Camberwell in
at Brighton-Fred went to school Archer, the jockey, was a school pal 10. Went to France at the age of 1 ran away from home to come back to Engiand to join the Royal Sussex, and after his Army service returned to Paris to become a salesman in
With an Amny carcer behind him, Durban. It was 1870 and marked it was not surprising that when war ourselves. Our pride rises up in If you go out of your way this Christ-
THE
the HE NICEST is often in
Hardiman. thoughts of Fred born In 1858. It was spent at perfumery. Pinetown, day's march
n
from
to
the end of a very long trek after broke out in 1914 he tried to get the glorious but expensive battle of back to Chichester to join his old re- Rorke's Drift.
surprising giment, and not really flat
when he found he could not get After months of Zulu hunting th
sea passage he joined the French hod come the veldt they
That was Pietermaritzburg, where the popula-Foreign Legion instead.
to spend the oddest tion had turned out to cheer the how he came South Wales Borderers and to pre-Christmas-in 1914, at Chemin des Rent them with a springbok to Damer, on the Somme. replace
goat. After
their
lost
. (Continued on Page 12)
The most miserable thing about loneliness is that i creates a vicious circle. Follow it round and round, and see what may ultimately happen to us. First we get out of touch with people, and we are driven a bit into protest, and our manner changes: we ore stand-offsit, cool.
to being Then is only a step brusque and austere, or, if we are not of that temperament, we may become peevish and petulant,
After that? Sheer ill-temper and an inmost feeling that the world hates us, so we hate the world,
It pays to be active for friendship. mas to be friendly, you will, with luck, break down those barriers which now Imprison you in a pathe- tie isolation, and which may be of making, though not de- your own liberately of your own seeking..
•
Do make quite sure that you don't
want to hug your loneliness, for If you do no one can help you.
CHRISTMAS PUZZLE PIE
SOLUTION
CODE MESSAGE'" "BE BENEATH | ARCH "AT QUARTER TO NINE.
SEE YOU ARE NOT LATE"
DIA MAGIC
SQUARE
PLUM
CAKE
CHRISTMAS
CRACKER: "HEARTY GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES. COLD TO
WARM
COLD
WOLD.
WORD
WORK
WARM
SUM IT un -
SOVEREIGN £1.0.0 CROWN
5.0
1.1.0
6
Z FAR THINGS GUINEA
TANNER
the
"ond pay the mortgage.".
Anna looked from
one to other, joy and hope struggling with in her face, "enry, the sOITOW my Henry," she sald proudly, knew he would find a way."
"Come on," said Henry; "bring the lamp, mother, take the club, father," and gaily, but with hushed voices, the three stole up the stairs.
*
Was
with it, buy out thu Jones' property, and regard the whole thing as trust.
At this moment the door of the room opened. A woman's form ap- peared. It was Caroline, robed in Anna's directoire night- of one gowns.
"I heard your voices," she said. And then, as she caught sight of Henry, sho gave a great cry.
"My husband!"
"My wife" bald Henry, and folded her to his heart...
"You have left Sing-Sing?" cried Caroline, with joy.
"Yes, Caroline," said Henry. shall never go back."
"I
THE stranger lay sunk in sleep.
The back of his hend turned to them as they came in.
mother," said the farmer hold the lamp a little nearer; firmly, Just behind the ear, I think, Henry,
"No" said Henry, rolling back his
Gally the reunited family descend- sleeve and speaking with the quicked. Anno carried the lamp, Henry authority that sat well upon him, carried the club. William carried · "across the jaw, father, it's quicker the million dollars.
The buttermilk circulated from hand.
and neater.”
"Well, well," said the farmer, smiling proudly, "have your own way, lad: you know best." Henry raised the club. But as he did so stay, what was that? Far away behind the cedar swamp the deep booming of the bell of the village church began to strike out midnight. One, two, three, its tones came clear across the crisp moment uir. Almost at the same
and
to hand.
told Henry story
of
William and the retold
their adventures. of the Christmas The first streak morn fell through the doorpane.
Ah, my cons." said John Enderby, "Henceforth let us stick to the nar
What is it that the Good: row path. Book says: A straight line is that which lies evenly between its ex-
the clock below began with deep treme points"," strokes to mark the midnight hour;
from the farmyard chicken coop a
(By permission of the author's
rooster began to crow twelve times, agents and the publishers, John while the loud lowing of the cattle Lane the Bodley Head Ltd.).
CALDBECK MACGREGOR & CO.,
2 CHATER ROAD,
HỒNG KONG
The Leading Wholesale And Retail Wine And Spirit Merchants In The Far East.
"The Connoisseur Comes to Caldbeck's"
LTD.
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